dubaisaint

Hi everyone, new to the forum and in need some of your expert advice!
Have been living and working in Dubai for the past three years with my wife and four young kids and recently got a good job offer to work in Riyadh, which I am tempted to accept. The package they are offering is as follows:
Basic salary: 52k SAR
Housing allowance: 13k SAR
Transport allowance: 5k SAR
Total package: 70k SAR per month
Other benefits include annual flights home, medical insurance and school fees of 20k SAR per child. This is a decent increase from my current package of 50k which includes school fees, medical and flights as benefits.
One catch - my wife doesn't want to uproot the family and move to KSA as the family are very settled here. So I was thinking to work in Riyadh during the week and commute back at the weekends, which I know plenty of people do, but of course I would have to pay for the flights and accommodation myself, which could come to 15-20k SAR per month and then that wipes out any gains I make on the salary increase!
So my question is - are there any people on this forum who do the commute between Dubai and Riyadh and can vouch that it's workable? If so, what is the cheapest way of living in Riyadh during the week - renting an apartment, a hotel, a serviced apartment etc?
Thanks for any advice if anyone is doing this already and figured out a way to make it work for them and their family.

psychopomp1

I assume your other half is already working in UAE, otherwise how is she going to continue living on a residential status there?

I imagine weekly return flights between Dubai and Riyadh wont be cheap, maybe reduce the frequency to every fortnight to keep costs down?

scot47

Visa to stay in the UAE is going to be difficult.

dubaisaint

thanks for the reply. No my
wife doesn’t work so she’s under my sponsorship but I thought the UAE changed the rules on residency visa recently that allowed you to work somewhere else but continue to reside in UAE?

psychopomp1

Happy to be corrected but your wife will need to be sponsored to stay in uae. Unless immigration rules in Emirates have changed your plan wont work so either your wife will have to follow you to KSA or live in UK/elsewhere.

tooboocoo

Several of my colleagues here in KSA have their families continuing to reside in Dubai. However, all of them were previously long-term UAE residents and workers so perhaps that makes a difference.
At the moment, they are unable to visit their families at all.

Geeky104

There is 1 year remote working visa which the Dubai government is providing where one can stay in Dubai and work remotely for a company from another country. Is that you are talking about?